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Comment by est | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone explain why Wechat, the app that can do everything, streaming paid music, read paid ebooks, order food and goods, play games, are allowed to charge directly without IAP?

Heck wechat even had its own mini app store.

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Because if they try to tell wechat no wechat won't change their app anyway so that would mean no wechat on ios. Which would mean goodbye to ios in china.

Because apple needs wechat and not the other way around. WeChat being an essential feature for any Chinese customer.

so the AppStore policy is selective?

Very much so.

Is this a real question (genuinely asking) ? Apple applying its policy differently for some apps, or chosing to re-interpret some of their policies randomly for some apps, is not an uncommon complaint and was a big part of spotify's original complaing.

It's a real question because the linked statement explicitly states the same rules are applied to all apps. One who may not acknowledge the obvious falsehoods can be excused for assuming the same rules are applied to all when told that's the case.

Shocker, I know!

I think part of it was that Apple was taking 30% from donations, tips, and e-cash gifts that wechat itself wasn't profiting off of, and I don't think those were even powered by in-app purchases.

Also, Apple itself accepts wechat as a payments method, so it's a payment processor.

Wechat isn't a direct competitor

Interesting. Also , is it impossible for spotify to offer its service through the ios browser?

AFAIK you can charge your service with Wechat, but be very careful hide from AppStore audit first.

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